Surgical staplers for use in minimally invasive surgery may be designed to be generally cylindrical in shape in order to fit through a corresponding trocar port placed in a patient, where that trocar port has a generally circular orifice defined therethrough. Such a surgical stapler typically includes a staple holder and an anvil pivotally connected to the staple holder. Referring to FIG. 1, a staple holder 2 viewed in cross-section may be generally shaped as a segment of a circle defined by a chord, which is the upper surface 4 of the staple holder 2 through which staples are ejected. Staples are held in individual bays or channels 6 within the staple holder 2. The bays or channels 6 are oriented perpendicular to the upper surface 4 of the staple holder 2. Consequently, the bays or channels 6 are oriented parallel to one another. Similarly, a knife slot 8 is typically defined in the staple holder 2, where that knife slot 8 is also oriented perpendicular to the upper surface 4 of the staple holder 2. The perpendicularity of the bays or channels 6 to the upper surface 4 limits the size of staples that can be deployed from the staple holder 2, because as the bays or channels 6 increase in size, they must move inward laterally such that they can still fit inside the staple holder 2. Further, by moving the bays or channels 6 laterally inward, space within the staple holder 2 laterally outward from those bays or channels 6 is wasted.
The use of the same reference symbols in different figures indicates similar or identical items.